The Football Association have charged Chelsea with 74 breaches of various rules related to agents and third-party ownership used in past transfer dealings.
BlueCo, the group that owns Chelsea and is fronted by Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali, self-reported the issues to the Premier League during their analysis of Chelsea’s finances prior to their takeover, highlighting a number of potential concerns stemming from the Roman Abramovich era.
Mysterious payments, allegedly related to the signings of players like Eden Hazard, Willian and Samuel Eto’o, sparked concern from Chelsea’s current owners and an investigation from the FA was encouraged, with the final findings now revealed.
“The Football Association has today charged Chelsea FC with breaches of Regulations J1 and C2 of The FA Football Agents Regulations, Regulations A2 and A3 of The FA Regulations on Working with Intermediaries, and Regulations A1 and B3 of The FA Third Party Investment in Players Regulations,” a statement read.
“In total, 74 charges have been brought against Chelsea FC. The conduct that is the subject of the charges ranges from 2009 to 2022 and primarily relates to events which occurred between the 2010–11 to 2015–16 playing seasons.
“Chelsea FC has until 19 September 2025 to respond.”
“Chelsea FC is pleased to confirm that its engagement with The FA concerning matters that were self-reported by the club is now reaching a conclusion,” a Chelsea statement responded.
“The Club’s ownership group completed its purchase of the club on 30 May 2022. During a thorough due diligence process prior to completion of the purchase, the ownership group became aware of potentially incomplete financial reporting concerning historical transactions and other potential breaches of FA rules. Immediately upon the completion of the purchase, the Club self-reported these matters to all relevant regulators, including The FA.
“The Club has demonstrated unprecedented transparency during this process, including by giving comprehensive access to the Club’s files and historical data. We will continue working collaboratively with The FA to conclude this matter as swiftly as possible. We wish to place on record our gratitude to The FA for their engagement with the Club on this complex case, the focus of which has been on matters that took place over a decade ago.”
Chelsea officials have been negotiating a settlement with the Premier League, as they did with UEFA over similar concerns back in 2023. According to The Guardian, there has long been confidence that any punishments would be financial, rather than in the form of points deductions or transfer bans.
While the charges in question would usually lead to severe sanctions, Chelsea’s argument is that not only do they relate to the previous ownership, but they would not have even come to light had the Blues not reported themselves to the Premier League.
Rival clubs are described as “sympathetic” to the situation, aware BlueCo are not to blame for any past issues.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Chelsea Rocked by 74 FA Charges Over Transfer Dealings.